Part 14 (1/2)
”Show us this sarcophagus,” commanded Demetrio, and Pro Conan, as apparently heedless of the wary eye the guardsmen kept upon hih the torn hangings and entered the room, which was ave into other chaes, Gods of strange lands and far peoples Promero cried out sharply
”Look! The bowl! It's open-and ee black cylinder, nearly four feet in height and perhaps three feet in diameter at its widest circumference, which was halfway between the top and the bottom The heavy, carven lid lay on the floor, and beside it a hammer and a chisel Delyphs, and turned to Conan
”Is this what you came to steal?”
The barbarian shook his head ”How could one man bear it away?”
”The bands were cut with this chisel,” mused Demetrio, ”and in haste
There are marks where misstrokes of the hammer dinted the metal Wenearby-possibly in the hangings of the doorway When Kallian had the bowl open, the ht have killed Kallian and opened the bowl hi,” shuddered the clerk ”It is too ancient to be holy Whoever saw metal like that? It seems harder than Aquilonian steel, yet see how it is corroded and eaten away in spots And look-here on the lid!” Proer ”What would you say that was?”
Den ”I should say it represented a crown of sorunted
”No!” exclaimed Promero ”I warned Kallian, but he would not believe me! It is a scaled serpent coiled with its tail in its n of Set, the Old Serpent, the God of the Stygians! This bowl is too old for a human world-it is a relic of the time when Set walked the earth in the for fros away in such cases as this!”
”And you'll say that those led Kallian Publico, and then walked away?”
”It was no man as laid to rest in that bohispered the clerk, his eyes wide and staring ”What man could lie in it?”
Demetrio swore ”If Conan is not theDionus and Arus, remain here with me, and you three prisoners stay here, too The rest of you, search the house!
The ot away before Arus found the body-could only have escaped by the way Conan used in entering, and in that case the barbarian would have seen hi the truth”
”I saw no one but this dog,” growled Conan, indicating Arus
”Of course not, because you're thetime, but we'll search as a formality And if we find no one, I promise that you shall burn! Re an artisan you go to the entleman, you burn!”
Conan bared his teeth for answer The an their search The listeners in the cha objects, opening doors, and bellowing to one another through the rooms
”Conan,” said Demetrio, ”you knohat it means if they find no one”
”I did not kill hiht to hinder hted his corpse”
”Someone sent you here to steal, at least,” said Demetrio, ”and by your silence you incriminate yourself in this h to send you to the uilt or not But, if you tell the whole tale, you may save yourself froly, ”I caave ram of the Temple and told me where to look for it It is kept in that room,” Conan pointed, ”in a niche in the floor under a copper Shemitish God”
”He speaks truth there,” said Proht not half a dozenplace”
”And if you had secured it,” Dionus sneered, ”Would you really have taken it to theeyes flashed resent,” the barbarian muttered ”I keep my word”